After a search in Florida: US investigators indicate obstruction of justice in the Trump case

After a search in Florida
US investigators point to obstruction of justice in Trump case

In the legal dispute over secret documents discovered during a search of former US President Donald Trump’s property, investigators see indications of a possible obstruction of justice. “Evidence found that government records were likely hidden and removed from storage (at Trump’s mansion) and that efforts were likely made to obstruct the investigation (…) ,” the Justice Department wrote in a late Tuesday night ( local time) published court document.

In early August, the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. The FBI confiscated several sets of documents classified as top secret. Since Trump is said to have kept the documents in his private estate after his term in office, he may have broken the law. This is now being investigated. Trump criticized the actions of the authorities as politically motivated. The Republican was president from 2017 to 2021, he could run for a second term in 2024.

During the search, emergency services confiscated numerous boxes with more than a hundred confidential documents, some of which were subject to the highest levels of secrecy, as the ministry now wrote. Contrary to a Trump lawyer’s assurance in early June that such documents would only be kept in the storage room in Mar-a-Lago, secret documents were also found in Trump’s office there.

Last week, Trump asked a Florida court to appoint a special representative to review the documents seized during the search. Judge Aileen Cannon announced on Saturday her preliminary intention to appoint such a neutral examiner. In the court document now filed against Trump’s request, the ministry argued that Trump, as a former president, no longer has the right to the documents because they “do not belong to him” but are the property of the government.

dpa